The Hunters Guild
The Hunter's Guild is the main governing body in the world of Monster Hunter. They work alongside the Elder Dragon Observation to monitor and research any species of wyvern and elder dragon. The Guild has outposts in almost every small village, also being able to evacuate these small villages if there are imposing threats. They are actively trying to recruit as many hunters as it can. The Guild is responsible for many duties, including maintaining the status of every hunter operating within Guild territory. This is done through the Guild Card, a personal ID that is updated every time a hunter registers him/herself at a Guild outpost. The Guild also reserves the right of suspending a hunter's license if the circumstances are appropriate, as seen in Monster Hunter Tri. The Guild also appears to have established the currency of Minegarde, the Zeni. The Guild is also a business, it must be in order to amass the funds needed to run such a large operation without tax collection. One way that helps is the collection of so-called "Account Items" in exchange for Zeni. If a hunter encounters an account item and brings it back to the red supply box, the guild collects it and gives the hunter a small cash reward for his troubles. These items are then taken to the market and sold for higher prices. Although this may seem unfair to the hunter, many hunters simply do not have the time to run a market endeavor, and are more than happy with the Guild's way of doing business. Account items are usually luxury items, ranging from delicacies to precious metals and rare stones. The Hunter's Guild's chief priority is keeping the lands under its control safe. It does so with its quest ranking structure. Quests are categorized into either gathering, slaying, or hunting and given a number of stars based on their difficulty. This helps hunters by putting their talents to the best use as well as adjusting beginners to the life of a hunter by not overwhelming them, thus maximizing the Guild's ability to eliminate monster threats. The Guild also has Urgent quests, quests of such danger or potential threat that they must be carried out immediately. Completing urgent quests can easily gain a hunter respect among his peers, showing that he has valor, courage, and skill. Occasionally a Monster will appear too large for any single hunter, or small group to handle. Such examples include Lao-Shan Lung and Shen Gaoren, monsters of such size they are beyond the strength of the Guild alone to handle. In such an instance the Guild will call for the assistance of any hunter operating within Guild boundaries to rally under one banner and repel the beast. (These situations are limited to 4 hunters due to the games ad-hoc structure). The Guild has also constructed several large Fortresses to aid in the defence of their lands. In addition, large towns under Guild control are often fortified against giant monster attacks, often utilizing the latest weaponry. When not relying on the strength of individual hunters, the Guild uses it loyal Guild Knights, a small but highly skilled corps of noblemen, to carry out its orders. Though not sufficient in numbers to handle large threats, the Guild Knights can deal with local menaces as well as carry out missions of diplomacy or other important bureaucratic work. However, the Guild is not an army. One instance where the Guild's numbers were not sufficient was when the mighty Akantor attacked. It was stated that a large portion of the Guild's might was needed simply to contain the creature in the volcanic belt. Most likely casualties were heavy, and the Guild limited the Hunters capable of undertaking the quest to kill the creature to only the highest skill to limit unnecessary losses.